A new creative wave for Melbourne

We can only do it together. The success of the Parkville Precinct’s co-operative philosophy has demonstrated this over and over again in the field of medical research, education and clinical practice.

“Solving big, complex problems like climate change and sustainable water and energy systems require finding new ways of thinking and doing,” says Ian Marshman, Senior Vice-Principal at the University of Melbourne.

His focus is now turning to the logistics of ushering in a new chapter of creative thinking and partnerships, drawing on the experience of the success of the Parkville Precinct.

In this new project the Parkville experience provides a proven example of how a critical mass of talent, infrastructure and collaborative effort can translate into real solutions to large problems such as the development of the bionic ear.

Melbourne’s next move will be to again marshal its world-leading innovation and research capacity to deliver integrated solutions to a new set of complex global problems.

“University researchers will be working every step of the way with the companies that can make new technologies and with the governments that will guide their implementation to develop solutions that will deliver real social, economic and environmental benefits,” Mr Marshman says.

“The solutions we need don’t just have to be up to the job; they must be developed quickly and be ready to fit straight into complex technological systems, our society and our economy.

“They will need fundamentally to change the way Australia and the world uses energy, water and natural resources, and how we live in cities, to meet the challenges we are facing now.

“What the University is able to offer is enormous depth of leading edge research knowledge, rich multi-disciplinary breadth and diversity and genuinely world-class platform technology that together provides the tools and capability required to develop and support systems solutions that can match the complexity of the real world issues that humankind is facing.”

For Professor Iven Mareels, Dean of the Melbourne School of Engineering, Australia’s environmental problems ironically provide a “living laboratory” that can see us emerge as a world leader and exporter of solutions.

“We actually ‘own’ two of the world’s greatest problems,” Professor Mareels says.

“We have a water problem – we are a dry continent with ambitions to double the population – and we are the worst energy users in the world.

”Victoria is a living laboratory whether we like it or not. And that gives us the opportunity to do some fantastic science and engineering and lead the way in solving these global problems.”

The key to achieving this leap from crisis to opportunity is breaking the conundrum of having to make long-term high capital decisions based on immediate and short-term data.

“In the face of climate change, characterised by greater uncertainty, evidence-based decision is seen to be of the essence,” he says.

“It is also perceived to be the most economic way forward to make our present civil infrastructure more resilient in the face of climate change pressure. In principle, networked sensors promise us in real time information about our environment (water flow, transport flow, power consumption, temperature distributions) at the temporal and spatial scale of the individual (house, car, office), when and where things change.

“The amount of data that can be collected is truly enormous, in the order of thousands of meaningful events per person per day. The main issue is then to aggregate the data in a meaningful manner and interpret the data to provide information to each individual so that everyone is able to make clear appropriate individual decisions that will contribute to a more sustainable system-wide behaviour. “

It is here that bringing together more than 500 ICT experts already working at Melbourne is of critical importance.

“Bringing minds together from a number of disciplines and backgrounds and interacting with the living laboratory, the people and the laboratory together that’s where you can make headway,” Professor Mareels says.

“If we can solve these big problems here, at scale, even if we do have to deal with the worst water and the worst energy problems, we can prove it will work anywhere in the world.

“There are great commercial benefits for Australia because we can demonstrate our solutions here and export them to many areas overseas which are grappling with the same problems. Globally this can make a real impact for a sustainable future.”

Professor Mareels believes that while science and engineering will provide the solutions, only individual behavioural change will see them successfully implemented.

“You can have the nicest technology available but unless you use it to make the right changes, nothing happens. It’s how people behave that’s going to make a difference in how we use energy.

“These problems don’t have clear-cut solutions that can be solved by researchers alone. It’s critical to have the community, policy-makers, industry and researchers working together in new ways to get the innovative outcomes needed to deal with them.”

Professor Mike Sandiford, Director of the Melbourne Energy Institute, believes Melbourne’s move to harness its research and development capacity towards solving what he calls “the wicked problems” of energy places it at the forefront of global leadership.

“One of the great challenges (wicked problems) of this century will be to provide opportunities for enhanced global prosperity that do not predicate excessive depletion of the Earth’s natural resources, significant degradation of our remaining natural ecosystems, or jeopardise our climate system,” Professor Sandiford says.

“Energy, food and water security in a growing world are key issues. With already more than two billion people in energy poverty and the expectation that we will add another two billion people by mid-century, there is desperate need to make energy services available to more and more people.

“So curtailing energy growth is no option unless we can dramatically improve energy efficiency. Provisioning energy supply will necessarily need to move to renewables this century simply because other energy sources are depleting rapidly. Similar arguments can be made for food and water.

“Resource-intensive communities such as our own have special responsibilities and opportunities to lead the innovation that will provide new routes to enhancing global prosperity, and not just out of obligatory or altruistic motives.

“In the words of President Obama, ‘We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century.’

“In the world of renewable energy, there is no developed economy with the resource potential of Australia. On a per capita basis we have 200 times more sun-light than the British. Our proportion of wind and wave is similarly much higher. While not strictly a renewable, we have extraordinary geothermal potential. In fact it is arguable that in terms of all our energy resources, coal, gas, uranium included, Australia’s greatest natural advantage is in renewables.

“We are potentially just as much, if not more of, a renewable resource superpower, as we are a mineral superpower.”